Revisiting my 2010 predictions (at the risk of making myself ill)

All 162 games are in the books and I submitted my BBWAA award ballots last night (I had NL MVP and NL ROY this year). So before the playoffs start … what? Bengie Molina has a homer and an RBI single already? … let’s get the annual humiliation out of the way and revisit my preseason predictions.

Well, at least Keith Law thinks Matusz should win Rookie of the Year. Pretty sure he’s got that planet all to himself. I will give myself credit for predicting a great year from Liriano, even though he won’t win. But I was a little overconfident with Mauer. Taking him with the third overall pick in your fantasy league? Yeah … I didn’t win. Not well played, Mauer.

Well, Liriano was a better guess than Haren. Did I also mention I had him on my fantasy team, too? Realistically, the best I can do is go 1-for-4 here, if Heyward wins ROY. I’m sure Giants fans ain’t havin’ that.

Always pick the wild card to come out of the AL East. Always pick the wild card to come out of the AL East. Always pick the wild card to come out of the AL East. Did I mention you should always pick the wild card to come out of the AL East?

Notice I did not pick the Padres last. I win closest-to-the-pin. And yes, I picked the Giants to miss the postseason. But that’s when I believed the baseball gods simply would not allow me to cover a playoff team in my lifetime. The Reds are the only playoff team I did not predict to finish in second place or higher. All hail Dusty Votto.

The Braves are a different club now. They don’t have Chipper or Prado. So I don’t necessarily stand behind my prediction that they’ll win it all. But at least I didn’t go with the Cubs this time.

Andrew Baggarly

Andrew Baggarly has documented the most eventful era in San Francisco Giants baseball history, having covered the team since 2004 for th​ree major media outlets including the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune​. This is his 20th season as a baseball writer.
​Baggarly is the author of the bestselling book, A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants, and the newly published Giant Splash: Bondsian Blasts, World Series Parades and Other Thrilling Moments By the Bay. Baggarly’s other notable life accomplishments include running as the Bratwurst in the Milwaukee Sausage Race and becoming a three-time Jeopardy! champion.

please Guillen, go away. does no one even remember the first game of Padres Series when he walked over to reach that single?
I’m happy to have him as our DH in the WS

t3

Baggs: And your vote for NL ROY is…??

I hope it wasn’t your above prediction.

The 13th Man

I’m surprised you didn’t pick Buster for NL ROY ala your Jim Tracy pick last year. Otherwise, I think this is another example of why pre-season and pre-playoff predictions are worthless. in all sports not just b-ball. football, esp., i always laugh when i get my SI football preview edition. always hilariously wrong in hindsight.

bseismic

@enonymous

In all fairness, if Posey was here all year, and if Sandoval wasn’t going through a personal life hell that affected his approach to all things baseball, I suspect the Giants would have won the division.

In all fairness to you, they would have beat out the Rox and not the Pads because Tulo is indeed an awesome player….

You get a huge Mulligan IMO because of the way you resonded to the idiot posting as BarryZito’sMom – on another Thread.

Outstanding – classy reply and decision to leave it up to “secure” the morons legacy was priceless.

I do think pre-season predictions as it goes for 162 game season is the hardest of all sports.

Enonymous

Bseismic

You left out if the rox didn’t serve juiced balls from their Humidor 🙂

bseismic

LOL… I did. Omission duly noted.

Rob_MT

Yes Baggs I hope you put Posey #1 on your roy vote. Also did u sneak any giants in the MVP ballot? You could make arguments for Posey or Huff.

lejioine

dunno why eveyrone keeps excusing pablos loooonng baseball season woes with his last year divorce, especially since his infidelity is the reason for the divorce lol..its not like poor pablo got left by his babe for a guy whos 100 pounds less and sings n plays guitar n does yoga or some stuff…he was the bad guy, so no..hes a grown man..that has nothing to do with why he sucks..he just sucks because league figured him out n he needs to adjust back

Sansui-Sans Haiku Corner

Prognostications
Shared without shame. Baseball Gods
Will reimburse you

Jbaggs

Andy-
Pretty impressive. All in all, those were pretty solid prognostications.
Even your misses were not too far off. Enjoy the postseason!
Jim

Oh i miss read it was your pre season predictions my bad. Please tell us you voted for Buster!

Adam

Bradley Emden

I think Dusty and Alou and Bochy may all be above league average, but it depends on how one looks at some moves they make. They all had different philosphies and they all have their down points. Dusty managed the team as if he had 4 quarters to the season, like in a basketball game. Alou tried to kwell the fire, even if it was not in the 9th inning. He tried hard to not allow the opponent to have a big inning. Dusty played a lot of hunches. Usually Bochy tries to give the players the best chance to do well, but like Dusty he will play a veteran or a favorite into the ground, while their is some young player with solid potential rotting on the bench. Roger Craig was OK too. Bochy this year has more talent on the pitching staff 1-12 than Dusty or Alou had.

enonymous, thanks for the link, i like seeing the Ross/Guillen stats all lined up like that…. except for one thing: knowing that, I’m even more appalled at Bochy’s decision to continue starting Guillen.

After further review!!!

Hey bleeding, I am not sure where you got your stats, but Heyward had a triple and RBI on Sunday. I also believe he had a few more along the way in the last week.

Walter Guest

Manager of the year? Has to be Bud Black. San Diego was projected for last place by nearly everyone (including me) in the preseason. He kept them in first place most of the way and in contention until the last game.

Bochy/Righetti have to be among the best at handling a pitching staff. And hats off to Sabean for assembling an excellent staff.

On the other hand, Sabean and Bochy have to be among the worst at evaluating and handling position players.

tulo is only decent, not great

as with most Rockies players, there is a significant dropoff from his home to road stats…when are people going to learn to factor this in for all Rockies players?? Carlos Gonzalez is a total JOKE away from Coors, just like Bichette, Castilla, and all the rest were…

Nightcrawler

#17:

the fact is that the braves pitchers are going to give us problems. They don’t give up a lot of HRs and they can pitch for the double play. We hit into double plays like they are good things. We don’t need anymore help doing so. Let’s hope Lowe is up with his sinking stuff and our guys can drive the ball.

GiantsFanFromNY

Nightcrawler

I’m not underestimating the Braves. They have great pitching (so does Philly). But ours is second to none…especially when you consider the depth.